1. Field
This invention relates to the field of process automation devices, and, in particular, to automation devices used in processes to be performed on chemical, biochemical, or biological samples and specimens.
2. Related Art
The use of automation in laboratory environments and pharmaceutical, manufacturing, and packaging or similar industries is well known. In molecular biology laboratories, for example, automation is used to transfer, mix, store, detect and analyze biological samples such as DNA, proteins, cells, tissues or similar samples in a high-throughput manner. In pharmaceutical industries automation is commonly used, for example, for high-throughput screening of compound libraries for discovering a new drug. Such processes usually involve one or more work samples that must go through different operations. Typically, such a system consists of a plurality of devices each of which performs one or more operations on a work sample. In laboratory environments, typically, standard labware or containers are used to hold a plurality of work samples, and a robot or a conveyer is employed to transfer the labware or containers from one device to another. The process, which consists of a set of work samples and operations is usually defined by a process manager, and may need to be re-defined from time to time. Therefore, the majority of such systems include a Computer Processing Unit (CPU) with a software package, which offers a Graphical User Interface (GUI) to the process manager for defining a new process and for running, monitoring, and controlling a process on the said plurality of devices.
While there are currently a number of such process automation systems in the market, there are several drawbacks to such systems. The currently available systems typically consist of a plurality of standalone and specialized instruments, such as for example a liquid handling robot, incubators and plate stackers that are integrated using a control computer and software that communicates with all such devices and synchronizes their operation. The drawback of integrating such specialized instruments is usually an increased complexity, higher cost, and lack of enough flexibility and scalability. Another drawback is that such independent instruments do not fully utilize the vertical dimension, which eventually leads to an increased footprint of the system. Also, the current systems typically use a multi-degree of freedom robot or a conveyer belt to transfer the samples. Such transfer mechanisms normally lack the precision required for high-precision operations such as microarraying. Therefore, the work sample has to first be transferred to a precise holder before any operations can be performed upon. Lack of specialized tools such as for example a very high-density pinhead is another shortcoming.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to build a complex process automation system from mostly identical simpler building blocks that could be rearranged and installed in different configurations and could be equipped with a plurality of tools. It would also be advantageous to effectively utilize the vertical space in order to minimize the footprint. Further, it would be advantageous to utilize a high-precision transfer device or conveyer to transfer work samples and at the same time locate the samples for high-precision operations.